Macy’s is shuttering dozens of stores across the country and laying off thousands of employees after a disappointing holiday season.
The retail giant announced on Tuesday that it was closing about one-fifth of its locations and cutting about 10% of its staff, or about 125 stores and 2,000 employees. The layoffs come as Macy’s stores are losing foot traffic to online shopping.
The company is closing its second headquarters in Cincinnati and moving those operations to New York.
“We will focus our resources on the healthy parts of our business, directly address the unhealthy parts of the business and explore new revenue streams,” Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said in a statement. “Over the past three years, we have shown we can grow the top-line; however, we have significant work to do to improve the bottom-line.”
“This will be a tough week for our team as we say goodbye to great colleagues and good friends. The changes we are making are deep and impact every area of the business, but they are necessary,” Gennette continued. “I know we will come out of this transition stronger, more agile and better fit to compete in today’s retail environment.”
Macy’s troubles reflect the downward trend in the retail industry as online shopping takes potential customers away from physical locations. U.S. companies closed a record 9,300 stores in 2019.
Macy’s stock price dipped a little more than 0.1% following the announcement.
